LeBron James still had not chosen where he will sign for next season nearly a month into free agency, but a fresh report on Thursday cut against the idea that he is holding his decision for an Anthony Davis move. ’s Shams Charania said on the Pat McAfee Show that James, Rich Paul and their inner circle are not waiting for another domino.
The timing matters because James’ silence has fueled the kind of league chatter that can turn one unsigned star into the center of every trade board. On Wednesday, Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo Sports floated the idea that James might be slow-playing his decision while waiting to see whether a suitor could land Kyrie Irving or Anthony Davis. Charania pushed back hard on that logic, saying James and Paul are not waiting for Davis to be traded anywhere and are not waiting for anybody else to move around.
That leaves the next move tied to James, not to the rest of the market. Anthony Davis cannot be part of a new deal until August 6 in the scenario discussed, and even then one possible path looks punishingly narrow for the Sixers. They would need Joel Embiid as the main salary match for Davis unless they were willing to include Jaylen Brown in the deal, because Embiid’s $58.0 million salary is close to Davis’ $58.5 million figure, leaving only about $470,000 of added money on the books. The problem is that the Sixers were already only $3.4 million below the first apron and could not cross it that season.
The roster math gets tighter from there. The Sixers had already traded their 2031 first-round pick and the 2028 obligation tied to Jaylen Brown, and the Stepien Rule keeps a team from being without a first-round pick in back-to-back drafts. That meant they could not move their 2027 or 2029 first-round picks because of the 2028 concern, and they also could not trade their 2030 or 2032 first-round picks because they owed the 2031 pick to Boston. Their only first-round pick left to trade was 2033, though they could still offer pick swaps in 2027, 2029, 2030 and 2032. They also owed a 2030 second-rounder to New York and a 2032 second-round swap with Memphis.
There is also a second layer of friction around Davis itself. Marc J. Spears of Andscape reported that the Washington Wizards were not listening to offers for Davis at the time, while Charania said Thursday that conversations for Davis had gone nowhere for the Golden State Warriors. O’Connor also noted that Davis would sign for less if traded to a contender, but that does not change the central fact here: James is still undecided, and the league theories built around a waiting game no longer have much support.
So the question is no longer whether James is stalling for Davis. It is whether he signs soon at all, because the longer he waits, the less room there is for anyone else to shape his decision.
